Curriculum Vitae

Author

Ryan J. O’Loughlin

Modified

October 1, 2025

Keywords

philosophy of science, climate models, uncertainty, trust without truth, decision-making under uncertainty

Areas of Specialization: Philosophy of Climate Science, Scientific Modeling, Values in Science
Areas of Competence: History and Philosophy of Science, Logic, Environmental Philosophy

Department of Philosophy
Queens College CUNY
65-30 Kissena Blvd
Flushing NY 11367

Email: roloughlin@qc.cuny.edu
Phone: (920) 905-4811
https://www.ryanoloughlin.org/

Employment

  • 2025– CUNY Graduate Center — Doctoral faculty member in Earth and Environmental Sciences
  • 2022– Queens College, City University of New York — Assistant Professor of Philosophy

Education

  • 2017–2022 Ph.D., Indiana University Bloomington (June 2022)
    History and Philosophy of Science
    Dissertation: “The Role of Model Intercomparisons in Climate Science.”
    Chair: Elisabeth Lloyd

  • 2015–2017 M.A., Ohio University — Philosophy
    Thesis: “Thomas Kuhn and Perspectival Realism.”

  • 2010–2014 B.S., University of Wisconsin–Stevens Point — Sociology (cum laude)

Publications

Peer-reviewed Journal Articles

  • 2025 — O’Loughlin, R., Li, D., Neale, R., and O’Brien, T.A. “Moving beyond post hoc explainable artificial intelligence: a perspective paper on lessons learned from dynamical climate modeling,” Geoscientific Model Development, 18, 787–802. doi
  • 2024 — O’Loughlin, R., “Why we need lower-performance climate models,” Climatic Change, 177(2), 1-21. doi
  • 2023 — O’Loughlin, R. “Diagnosing errors in climate model intercomparisons,” European Journal for Philosophy of Science, 13(2), 1-29. doi
  • 2022 — O’Loughlin, R., and Dan Li. “Model Robustness in Economics: the admissibility and evaluation of tractability assumptions,” Synthese, 200, 1-23. doi
  • 2021 — O’Loughlin, R. “Robustness Reasoning in Climate Model Comparisons,” Studies in History and Philosophy of Science: Part A, 85, 35-43. doi
  • 2020 — O’Loughlin, R. “Seepage, Objectivity, and Climate Science,” Studies in History and Philosophy of Science: Part A, 81, 74-81. doi

Invited papers, reviews, and other publications

  • 2025 — O’Loughlin, R. [book review] Values in Science, by Kevin Elliott. Journal of Moral Philosophy (online first). doi
  • O’Loughlin, R., and Stuart Gluck. “Confirmation and Robustness of Climate Models,” in Philosophy, Feminism, and Science: Critical Perspectives on the Work of Elisabeth A. Lloyd, Edited by Ryan Ketcham and Michael R. Dietrich (Univ. of Pittsburgh Press, under contract)
  • 2021 — O’Loughlin, R. “The Influence of Climate Contrarianism on Scientific Research.” Communiqué, Canadian Society for History and Philosophy of Science, No. 104. link

Public-facing writing

  • 2025 — O’Loughlin, R. “Why imperfect climate models are more helpful than you think.” Yale Climate Connections. link

Awards and Grants

  • 2025 — PSC-CUNY Cycle 56 Research Grant, Summer ($3500)
  • 2023 — Queens College Research Enhancement Grant, NCAR travel ($1000 + $2500 Mellon Foundation Fund)
  • 2023 — PSC-CUNY Cycle 54 Research Grant, Summer ($3500)
  • 2022 — Victor E. Thoren Graduate Student Research Fellowship, Indiana Univ. HPSC ($3000)
  • 2021 — NSF Travel Support, Philosophy of Science Association Biennial Meeting
  • 2019 — APA Pacific Graduate Student Stipend Award
  • 2018 — NSF Travel Support, PSA Biennial Meeting; IU Graduate Student Government Travel Award (APA Pacific)
  • 2017 — Mary Spetnagel Philosophy Award; Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award, Ohio Univ.
  • 2016 — Idus Murphree Award; Student Achievement Award (modeling and fictions), Ohio Univ.

Talks and Presentations

Invited Talks

  • 2025 — Convergence, Divergence, and Trust in Climate Models. CUNY ASRC Environmental Science Initiative Seminar (Mar 12), New York, NY
  • 2023 — A philosophical take on error and lower-skill models in climate science. Queens College SEES Colloquium (Sept 27), Queens, NY
  • 2023 — Why we should want models to disagree. NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies (May 3), New York, NY
  • 2022 — Why we should want models to disagree. NCAR Climate & Global Dynamics Lab (Oct 25), Boulder, CO (virtual)

Peer-Reviewed Conference Presentations

  • 2025 — Moving beyond post hoc XAI: lessons from dynamical climate modeling. Gordon Research Conference: Machine Learning for Actionable Climate Science (poster), June 22–27, Smithfield, RI
  • 2024 — Can philosophers help make advances in climate modeling? Minnesota Center for Philosophy of Science (Oct 17–19), Minneapolis, MN
  • 2023 — Can subpar models contribute to climate justice? 4S Conference (Nov 8–11), Honolulu, HI
  • 2023 — The value of error and failure in climate modeling. WCRP Open Science Conference (Oct 23–27), Kigali, Rwanda (virtual)
  • 2023 — Diagnosing Errors in Climate Model Intercomparisons. Long Island Philosophical Society (Apr 1), St. John’s Univ., Queens, NY
  • 2022 — Competition and pluralism in climate modeling. PSA Biennial Meeting (Nov 10–13), Pittsburgh, PA
  • 2021 — Tractability assumptions, holism, and model robustness. (with Dan Li) PSA Biennial Meeting (Nov 11–14), Baltimore, MD
  • 2021 — Historical and contemporary climate model intercomparisons. EPSA Biennial Meeting (Sept 15–18), virtual
  • 2021 — Climate model comparisons: history and implications. CSHPS Annual Meeting (May 29 – Jun 2), virtual
  • 2021 — Can we infer an absolute timescale via local data? (with Dan Li) Boston Univ. Philosophy Grad Conference (Apr 22–23), virtual
  • 2019 — Climate Models: Robust and Explanatory. Graduate Climate Conference (Nov 7–10), Woods Hole, MA
  • 2019 — Objectivity, Seepage, and Climate Science. APA Pacific (Apr 17–20), Vancouver, BC; also IU HPS Grad Conference (Mar 29–30), Bloomington, IN
  • 2018 — A challenge to Seepage in the Global Warming ‘hiatus’. AGU Fall Meeting (Dec 10–14), Washington DC; also PSA Biennial Meeting (Nov 1–4), Seattle, WA (poster)
  • 2016 — The Problem with Regarding Models as Fictions. Mid-South Philosophy Conference (Feb 19–20), Rhodes College, Memphis, TN

Workshops and Lunchtime Talks

  • 2025 — (with Dan Li) Moving beyond post-hoc XAI. NCAR Climate & Global Dynamics Machine Learning group (Feb 12), virtual
  • 2024 — The Ethics of Researching Stratospheric Aerosol Injections. NASA GISS (Dec 4), New York, NY
  • 2024 — Value-laden research and Climate Interventions. NASA GISS (May 29), New York, NY
  • 2024 — Philosophy and Modeling Earth’s Future. QC Social Science Faculty Research Seminar (Apr 8), Flushing, NY
  • 2023 — (with Dan Li) Holism in Climate Modeling. NASA GISS (Dec 20), New York, NY

Research Experience & Training

  • 2018–2021 — Research Assistant to Prof. Elisabeth Lloyd, Indiana Univ. Bloomington
  • 2019 & 2021 — Research Assistant for NSF #1754740 A Methodological Study of Big Data and Atmospheric Science, NCAR, Boulder, CO

Teaching Experience & Pedagogy

Queens College–CUNY

  • Intro to Philosophy (FA22, SP23, FA23, SP24, FA24, SP25, SU25, FA25)
  • Philosophy of the Environment (FA22, SP23, SP24, FA24, FA25)
  • Philosophy of the Natural Sciences (SP25; cross-listed; special topic: Pluralism and Indigenous perspectives on climate science)
  • Problems in Philosophy: Why should we trust (climate) models if they’re all wrong? (FA23; cross-listed)

Pedagogy
- 2025 — Open Educational Resource Winter Intensive Faculty Fellowship ($2000 stipend)

Indiana University Bloomington

  • Instructor: Geoengineering and Climate Change (FA21, self-designed, Collins LLC)
  • Instructor: Scientific Reasoning (SP18, FA19, SP20, FA20, SP21; mix of online/synchronous/asynchronous)
  • Instructor: Environmental Science (Summer 2019, FSM Program, co-taught)
  • TA: The Intricate Human: Global Climate Change (SP22)
  • TA: Evolution and Creationism (FA17, cross-listed CAS course)

Pedagogy
- 2021 — Intercultural Competence Certificate

Ohio University

  • Instructor: Principles of Reasoning (SU16, FA16, SP17)
  • TA: Principles of Reasoning (FA15, SP16)

Service to the Department and College

Queens College–CUNY

  • 2024–25 — Personnel & Budget Committee; SEES revision committee; master’s thesis advising; reviewer, Social Science Research Enhancement Grants (13); PSC grant reviewer (2)
  • 2023–24 — Personnel & Budget Committee; PSC grant reviewer (3); Philosophy Club Truth & Justice Panel (Mar 10)
  • 2022–23 — SEES search committee (external); Philosophy lecturer search committee; undergraduate thesis advising; Philosophy Club (with Dan Li): How not to be replaced by AI (May 10)

Indiana University Bloomington

  • 2020–22 — Organizer, HPS Grad Weekly Writing Group
  • 2018–19 — Chair, HPS Graduate Student Association
  • 2017–18 — Social Chair, HPS Graduate Student Association

Professional Service and Affiliations

Referee for Research Grants
- Swiss National Science Foundation (2024)

Referee for Academic Journals
- Philosophy of Science (2025); Synthese (2025); BJPS (2021, 2024, 2025); Science of the Total Environment (2021); EJPS (2023–25); Journal for General Philosophy of Science (2025); Frontiers in Climate (2023)

Conference Planning, Chairing, Commentary
- 2024 — APA Eastern, Commentary on Vergara’s Just Cause, Sanctions, and Climate Change
- 2022 — AGU Fall Meeting, Session convener: “Making Climate Models & Data Actionable”
- 2021 — PSA Biennial Meeting, Chair: “Why Trust Science?”
- 2021 — CSHPS, Chair: climate science & policy session
- 2020 — APA Central, Commentary on Dethier’s Indistinguishable Ensembles
- 2019 — IU HPS Women’s Conference (co-organizer); IU HPS Grad Conference (program committee & commentary)
- 2018 — IU HPS Grad Conference (program committee & commentary)

Memberships

Philosophy of Science Association · European Philosophy of Science Association · American Philosophical Association · American Geophysical Union · Society for the Social Studies of Science

Outreach

  • CUNY Climate Consortium (2023–present)
  • Science Fest, Indiana Univ. Bloomington (2017, 2018)
  • Makah Water Foundation, Cameroon — Study abroad volunteer (Winter 2013)

Languages

  • English (native)
  • Mandarin Chinese (intermediate proficiency, speaking & reading)

Updated: October 1, 2025